Dusting off a 10-year-old quote from House Majority Leader
DeLay, House Democrats criticized Republicans for requiring
another increase in the statutory debt limit. At a news
conference today, House Minority Whip Hoyer and members of the
Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats claimed DeLay spoke
out about raising the limit on March 29, 1993. "Here we are
being asked this week to raise the debt ceiling so that this
government can go on borrowing money to take care of its
spending habits, and I think that is outrageous," the Democrats
quoted DeLay as saying in 1993. "Was he wrong then or was he
hypocritical?" Hoyer asked. The debt limit currently stands at
$6.4 trillion. Passage of a budget resolution conference report
in the House would automatically move a separate debt resolution
to the Senate, where a debt limit debate is expected. But
because of the problems with the budget resolution -- and the
likelihood that it would not be completed until sometime Friday
-- one Senate GOP aide said it was unlikely there would be
action this week on raising the debt ceiling. "We're going to
run out of bodies," said the aide, noting the Senate would not
have time to take up the debt resolution.